The long term goal of the proposed work would be to develop the most efficient means to reduce fracture risk in an osteoporotic femur given the ability to add a specified amount of bone mass. As an initial study, we propose to investigate the problem using methods of engineering design optimization to examine several pertinent issues. A finite element (FE) model of the proximal femar will be used as the driving function in the optimization procedure. This model was developed from a quantitative CT scan of a 93 year old female from which detailed geometry and local cortical and cancellous bone density was determined. The model consists of 5,745 8-noded linear elastic 3-D elements with 31,293 nodes. Two candidate design objectives are 1) minimizing failure risk with a fixed limit on resources (amount of bone added) and 2) minimizing cost (added bone mass) with a fixed limit on failure risk. Two organizational methods will be investigated: the modified method of feasibl e directions and sequential quadratic programming.